STREAM-RIPPINGNOW“MOSTAGGRESSIVE”FORMOFMUSICPIRACY

Stream-ripping has now been tagged as the “most aggressive form of music piracy” by PRS for Music and the Intellectual Property Office.

According to recent research by INCOPRO and Kantar Media, the use of stream-ripping sites increased 141.3% between 2014 and 2016 in the U.K.

57% of the 9,000 respondents surveyed were aware of stream-ripping sites and 15% had utilized a service. 33% of these users are aged 16-34.

While much of the traffic for the 80 ripping sites studied was seen directly from users, 60% of traffic for the download sites was directed via search. Additionally, advertising is the primary revenue source keeping the sites active.

YouTube was found to be the most popular source for the audio; however, many of the 80 ripping sites surveyed could also target the licensed SoundCloud, Spotify, and Deezer platforms.

This issue isn’t new to major labels. Back in September of 2016, Universal, Warner, and Sony collectively filed a lawsuit against German YouTube stream ripping website, YouTube-mp3.org. At the time of this post, the site does remain online.